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Roll your own PVR with MythTV: Wired
Wired has an article that does a great job of bringing Linux based PVR products into the mainstream. The article focuses on MythTV and explains that while mildly technical to setup, a Linux PVR such as MythTV can do everything a "TiVo" can do and more. Equipped with multiple tuner cards are MythTV box can record multiple shows simultaneously, it has the scheduler, it can pause live tv, it can record shows to VCD, etc, etc, etc.
For more see the links. I for one have been eyeballing TiVo and ReplayTV for a LONG time, but I dont want to pay any monthly fees or one huge up front fee for scheduling. I dont want to be held hostage by that, I want the device and I want to roll from there. Looks like I will be building a MythTV box ASAP. Building a TiVo, a Step at a Time: Wired
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Re: Roll your own PVR with MythTV: Wired
Keep in mind that this is *not* as good as Tivo.
MythTV's Scheduling is way, way below that of what Tivo does, which by the way is why it's worth $5/month to those that have it.) MythTV just scrapes a site. Meaning, site changes and your screwed. Not to mention that Tivo has uber-cool things like recording shows that you've setup even if they come on at an odd day or time.
It also is fairly useless if you use a satellite or any other kind of cable box. (Anything where your TV can't do the tuning.) For me, this is the real deal-breaker.
Finally, it cost a helluva lot more to build a decent box that can capture video than it does to buy a Tivo.
With Tivo and Replay's latest offerings, you can record on one box and playback on another (I believe there's easy hacks to get Replay to put'em on a PC, there's more complicated hacks to get Tivo to do it, as well.)
While, I'd admit MythTV and some of its kindred have a well-polished look and they've got good geek-factor, I'll stick with Tivo.
Re: Roll your own PVR with MythTV: Wired
well i disagree with you.
the scheduling is NOT as good as TiVo, no. however its totally useful if you have a cable box or satellite. XMLTV scrapes from sites that are tailored to zip codes AND type of service (i think it scrapes from TV guide). it DOES work for my cable company and DirectTV in my area, for example. (I havent used it, but I HAVE looked up listings to see whats there.)
what it does NOT have is the "Season Pass" stuff. Its true you still have to schedule your recordings and if they change times or schedules or whatever it wont work or you will get the wrong thing.
then if you consider the scheduling for what it *Really* is, which is that it indeed does work but its not as full featured as tivo, and you consider all the OTHER stuff a MythTV or Freevo box can do (such as record to VCD, play any other media type, etc) they have many many advantages that a TiVo or Replay will never have.
i want to get a myth box setup, and i DONT want to do it for the "geek" factor. i want to do it so i dont have to pay the dumbass 5 bucks a month or 299 "lifetime" (lifetime being of the unit if you read the agreements) from TiVO. the monthly or lump sump programming/scheduling fees are the entire reason i dont own a TiVo right now.
also, recording on one unit and piping to another is mega cool, didnt know they had that. that solves my cable box in the living room only, but watch late night tv in the bedroom issue. doesnt mean i am going TiVo, yet, but glad to hear its there. i am conflcited on this one, i love TiVO, i have used it at friends, etc, but i cant justify the money (yet i know it will certainly be cheaper to just pay the lifetime thing, which they DO still offer, and less headache, that to mess with some open source stuff, that will end up costing much more and taking much more time, but its the principle dammit!).
Re: Roll your own PVR with MythTV: Wired
> well, i disagree with you
No! Whoulda thunk it?
My point with it being useless with a satellite and cable boxes is that it can't change the channels on external devices. It can change the channel of your tuner card, but that doesn't do you any good at all. Either your tuner's always gonna be on channel 3 or 4 or you're going to be using 'video in' or something similar.
So, basically, you can't schedule it to record something on a couple of different channels handsfree. To me, this is the point of having the damned thing. If I wanted to be there to change channels and stuff, I'd just use the crappy WinTV software.
As for principal, what's the big deal? They provide a very useful service and they don't really charge all that much for it. I **** you not, the Season Pass [b]completely[/b] changed how I watch TV.
Just my $.02
Re: Roll your own PVR with MythTV: Wired
just cheked the tivo prices to compare with building myself a box
40 hour series 2 hardware are 249 each
lifetime subscript for each is 299
home media option (record one watch other) 99
thats 1200 bucks for a decent TiVo setup.
i know its cool and all, but damn, that aint cheap. i can build several myth boxes, say AMD 1.8GHz, 180GB HDD, 512MB ram, Nvidia GeForce 4MX vid cards with S-video out, WinTV PVR cards (so that the CPU doesnt have to do the decode/encode, that card can do it) for prolly 700-800 apiece. yes thats more than 1200 bucks, but its 2 complete and pretty much kick ass computers as well as myth machines.
Re: Roll your own PVR with MythTV: Wired
I will just pipe in as an aspiring FreeVo user:
I still like the fact that FreeVo will play my MP3s, DivX/XviD, MAME, etc.
I could really care less about the season pass thing as there are only 3 TV shows I watch, but having that all in one digital media box is a good thing.
Re: Roll your own PVR with MythTV: Wired
ahhh, now i understand about your cable box issues. i havent tried it yet, but yeah, it can onlt change whatever channels the tuner card can handle and that (in my case) is just the basic cable but none of the digital stuff.
great points, i sure would like a Tivo, and i do like the idear of Season Pass, but i just dont have 1200 bucks at the moment, and i think i can at least build a lame myth box out of spare stuff in my basement to give it a try (i have several old bt based wintv cards).
that will have to do for me, until i just give in and pop for the tivo on the credit card.
Re: Roll your own PVR with MythTV: Wired
[QUOTE]ahhh, now i understand about your cable box issues. i havent tried it yet, but yeah, it can onlt change whatever channels the tuner card can handle and that (in my case) is just the basic cable but none of the digital stuff. [/QUOTE]
Well, MythTV DOES support remote channel changing on boxes if you have the serial connection or you have a irblaster or some other generic IR signal generator.
Re: Roll your own PVR with MythTV: Wired
Didn't realize this, (been 6 months or so since I looked hard.) Maybe I just missed it.
Don't get me wrong, I may still build me up a 'media' pc for my Family Room and I'd want it to have everything you talked about, oooh especially MAME (of course, I do have mame for the PS2 Linux kit, but it's pretty restricted in what games can run.) But I'd be willing to bet that I'll still have my Tivo. (DirecTV/HD s'posed to be coming out this year. drool...drool....drool....)
AllsI'mSayin' is that Tivo still offers a lot of service for a fairly small price. Services that simply can't be matched by anything else out there in the OSS world.
I just don't see why paying for something very useful is against any sort of principle.
Re: Roll your own PVR with MythTV: Wired
Just to continue this on, ExtremePC has an a new [url=http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,1121844,00.asp]article[/url] on this as well.
Re: Roll your own PVR with MythTV: Wired
it is useful, i agree.
the principle thing is jut that if i pay 300 bucks for each box, i dont think i should have to pay a monthly fee to use them? maybe its just me but it should EITHER be 12.95 a month, OR it should be 300 bucks for the box, thats it. i just dont like the idea of buying all the hardware and then also paying for the scheduling crap on a monthly basis (or another lifetime lump).
maybe its dumb, granted, but it just doesnt sit right.
Re: Roll your own PVR with MythTV: Wired
I guess since I only paid about $80 for the hardware (Series 1), the "either or" stance didn't bother me. Who knows how much I'll end up paying for new DirecTV/HDTV/Tivo box. (Don't care either, I NEED my HDTV ;)
Re: Roll your own PVR with MythTV: Wired
I think there is a risk Tivo is running with charging both fees (the cable companies will eat this market up when they get motivated to) - although correct me if I'm wrong but neither Tivo or Replay is profitable so it's not exactly like the consumer is getting screwed here..